ThemeGrill EditorialAre you confused between WPBakery vs Elementor? Don’t worry, we’ll help you solve your confusion.
If you are a WordPress enthusiast, then hearing about WPBakery and Elementor must not be new to you. Both WPBakery and Elementor are among the best page builders.
Thanks to these page builders, all it takes is a few clicks to edit sites. So, in this article, we’ll compare WPBakery and Elementor to help you choose one for your site.
So, let’s begin!
Table of Contents
A. Introduction (WPBakery vs Elementor)
1. WPBakery – Introduction
WPBakery is among the first and most popular WordPress page builders, formerly known as Visual Composer. With WPBakery, you can design unique-looking pages using their building blocks of content. Moreover, it lets you drag and drop elements to build stunning sites.
The page builder is packed with more than 50 content elements. It includes social media buttons, text blocks, charts, carousels, etc. To get started with WPBakery, you need to install and activate the plugin like any other plugin.
WPBakery is a unique page builder that makes your layout building process pretty easy without requiring much HTML knowledge and writing Shortcodes.
2. Elementor – Introduction
Elementor is a top website builder regarded as the 6th most used plugin in the WordPress ecosystem. It has an active installation of 5 million, as of the time this article is written and is available in 50+ languages. To add more, it’s an open-source based platform and powers over 1 million sites.
It lets you design and shape your site with its drag-and-drop features and inbuilt responsiveness. Elementor offers limitless site/page designing opportunities with its widgets, extensive template library, and more. It’s surprisingly easy to get started with Elementor; all you need to do is install the free plugin and you’re good to go.
The website builder has rapidly grown as it replaces the basic WordPress editor. It allows you to visually design your layouts and site without switching between preview and edit mode. Best of all, it provides in-built hosting powered by Google.
B. Overall Features (WPBakery vs Elementor)
1. WPBakery – Features
Templates and Presets
WPBakery offers unique-looking templates along elegantly designed layouts. You get to use their layout templates and 100+ predesigned templates to design your site.
It also allows you to create element settings preset by customizing content element settings, or you can also set a default to avoid the hassle of keeping on changing it.
Editor
With WPBakery’s intuitive frontend and backend editor, you can do inline editing that makes page layout editing very simple and easy. Its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor lets you instantly track the changes you incorporate into your layout.
Likewise, with the backend editor, you can create posts, pages, etc., and view them in a schematic mode.
Add-Ons
It offers more than 250 great add-ons to enhance your page-building experience. The addons are set to add rich elements and features to your WordPress site.
Content Elements
You get 50 pre-packed content elements with WPBakery. The content elements are everything you need and can be used to create posts/pages by dragging and dropping them.
Grid Builder
WPBakery offers a grid builder that can be used to build your grid item templates. You can use it to place various grid items’ elements, control positions, and appearance. Also, the grid builder is convenient to build portfolios, photography, and other multiple grids.
2. Elementor – Features
Big Widgets Library
Elementor’s widgets are among its vital features as it offers 40+ widgets. 40 are available for free, but you can add more by switching to the premium version. However, the free ones are more than enough to create a full-fledged page if you don’t wish to upgrade.
Templates
If you don’t want to build your website from scratch, you can choose from Elementor’s 300 beautiful templates. The templates are applicable for any niche and you can customize these templates as your preference.
Simple Interface
When you look at Elementor’s interface, you’ll see how simple and understandable it is to look at it. All content looks better; that’s also a plus point for beginners who don’t want to spend much time on the interface. So, if you’re someone looking for a simple yet rich interface, Elementor should be your priority.
Navigator
With Elementor’s Navigator, you can move across, along, and within your page elements. It also allows you to quickly look at the custom changes viewed via indicators.
Allows Undo/Redo
Elementor allows you to undo what you might accidentally do, like deleting the entire row/column. You can quickly fix inevitable mishaps, unlike other website builders that save the draft of your work. They don’t come in handy when you mistakenly delete things.
Hosting
Elementor now also offers world-class web hosting powered by Google. It’s highly secure and robust and boosts the performance of the website. The hosting service includes automatic daily backups, CDN by Cloudflare, and SSL. It also provides a free elementor.cloud subdomain with every Elementor Cloud Website plan.
Verdict: Both WPBakery & Elementor offers a nice list of features to elevate any site and its design. WPBakery’s content elements, frontend, and backend editor provide simple and easy ways to build sites. Likewise, Elementor is equally rich with an excellent interface and widget library handier for advanced users.
C. Customization Option (WPBakery vs Elementor)
Being able to customize the elements as per your liking is one of the important factors in any page builder. So, let’s see what each WPBakery and Elementor has to offer if you wish to change things around your site.
1. WPBakery
WPBakery offers all the essential features that you require in a page builder. You get custom fonts, colors, and much more to customize your page. Further, their shape dividers can be used to customize your margins, backgrounds, animations, etc.
So, you don’t have to worry about going through the extra work to customize different elements for your site.
2. Elementor
Similar to WPBakery, you also get various customization options with Elementor. This means you can modify just about any of your pages using Elementor and customize it completely from header to footer.
Some of its other customizable elements include color, background, padding, shape dividers, animations, margins, etc.
Verdict: Both WPBakery and Elementor provide convenient access to choose the elements of your choice and customize fonts, colors, background, etc. Despite everything, header customization is somewhat limited in Elementor, whereas some users might feel overwhelmed with WPBakery’s too many customization options.
D. Integrations (WPBakery vs Elementor)
1. WPBakery
WPBakery offers a massive unlimited add-on bundle for page builders. It includes 500+ add-ons along with 15+ predefined web page layouts. Further, WPBakery’s vital integrations are WPMU DEV, MasterStudy LMS, and Woffice.
2. Elementor
As for Elementor, it’s integrated with various primary tools like email marketing CRM, and social networking. Its other known integrations are HubSpot, MailChimp, Slack, Zapier, Facebook SDK, reCaptcha, and Drip. Further, it’s integrated with Font Awesome 5, Discord, MailerLite, Custom Icon Libraries, etc.
Verdict: WPBakery has a massive collection of addons with limited integrations, whereas for Elementor you get more integrations as it has the advantage of various third-party integrations to help extend your site.
E. Pricing (WPBakery vs Elementor)
1. WPBakery
WPBakery is a premium plugin for WordPress that’s priced at the following price:
| Plan | Price | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Regular | $56 | Use on a Single Site |
| Extended | $299 | Use on a single Saas application |
Also, it has a one-time payment system. After you purchase it, you’ll be getting lifelong free updates.
If you manage to buy a theme from the ThemeForest marketplace, you’re likely to get WPBakery for free if the theme you purchased is integrated with WPBakery.
2. Elementor
Elementor is a freemium website builder. You can download the free version from the WordPress repository. Along with it, also make sure that you use the Elementor ready theme like Zakra for the best results. It’s a multipurpose theme that’s fully compatible with the Elementor website builder.
And, if the free version is not enough for your site, you can always buy the premium version.
The premium version offers different plans and pricing that are mentioned below:
| Plans | Price | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | $49/year | 1 Website |
| Expert | $199/year | 25 Websites |
| Studio | $499/year | 100 Websites |
| Agency | $999/year | 1000 Websites |
Also, Elementor has a web hosting plan with a website builder priced at $99/year that offers SSL, automatic updates, 20GB storage, and much more.
Verdict: If you’re looking for something for the least cost, Elementor is the one for you with its free version that comes with important features. But, WPBakery has an equally valuable advantage with its unique features and not to forget the one-time payment option that wins in terms of convenience.
F. Pros and Cons (WPBakery vs Elementor)
1. WPBakery
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| WPBakery offers a vast list of elements without requiring third-party extensions. | There isn’t any notable free version of WPBakery. |
| It has Frontend and Backend editors. | It’s shortcode-based, and when you deactivate the plugin, you’ll encounter a mess of shortcodes to resolve. |
| Its multiple customization options make it the crowd’s favorite. | Not among the fastest page builder. |
| It supports multilingual and has role access control. | Lacks in terms of some elements like importing and exporting templates, and undo/redo mishaps. |
| Among many elements, it also includes quite handy social media elements. | Some users feel overloaded due to its many customization options and steep learning curve. |
2. Elementor
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It doesn’t require any shortcodes, so it prevents any possible lock-in. | Choices in terms of header customization are limited. |
| The free version itself has many vital features and is also open-sourced. | Fails to offer any Whitelabel version |
| Various useful third-party integrations are available. | The site might face a slow load due to Elementor’s complex layouts. |
| You get conditional statements for Theme Builder Templates. | Offers limited SEO tools that may impact your Google ranking. |
| Developer-friendly and comes with in-depth documentation. | Limit in terms of customization options. |
Final Thoughts
We’ve analyzed WPBakery and Elementor in terms of enough features and information they offer for any site, and here’s our take on it.
1. WPBakery
Given everything, WPBakery has more elements compared to Elementor. You can use their huge range of blocks, among which many don’t require extensions. Not to forget, each element can also be customized as per your liking, or either their pre-built templates can simplify your site-building process.
But one of its major opposing sides is lock-ins. As we mentioned earlier, it uses many shortcodes, and you’re likely to get into a complicated mess of shortcodes. It also causes your WordPress backend to lag sometimes.
2. Elementor
Now talking about Elementor, it’s better in terms of interface and offers better style choices. Elementor has faster and more intuitive inline editing compared to WPBakery. Also, their features are easy to handle and have an intimidating free version.
Their updates and improvements are also quite regular, a number one plus point. Elementor’s addons are also quickly growing and are very beneficial to users. Also, for those with more technical knowledge, it’s open-source in nature along with API support. On top of that, it offers a hosting plan combined with a website builder.
Hence, if we had to choose, we like Elementor better than WPBakery, but you should explore both page builders individually and identify which one suits best for your site.
Wrapping It Up!
And that’s all for our detailed comparison between WPBakery vs Elementor. We’ve covered every vital aspect you need to know before choosing between two very popular page builders.
Both of them have their individual plus point and flaws. Page builders are key to an excellent site like themes, plugins, and hosting. So, before choosing one, you’ll have to know your site’s requirements and identify the best fit for your site.
This ends our article. We hope you’ve enjoyed it; if you did, please take a moment to share it on your social media. Also, don’t forget to check our articles on the best free WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, and web hosting services. Happy Reading!
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